Hawke's War

by Reavis Z. Wortham

  “Phoebe. Can you get me out of here?”

  “Shit.” He pivoted back to the bar and caught a glimpse of an arm and pistol pointed at them from around the corner of a building. He fired. The arm bloomed red and the pistol fell. “Get away from the door. Yolanda! Reloading. Cover fire!”

  A chain threaded through holes in the sun-bleached planks held the door closed. Yolanda knelt and squeezed off controlled bursts, keeping the Mexican army at bay on the left, and the gangsters on the right.

  He kicked at the door and one of the boards cracked. He kicked again, trusting Yolanda to keep him covered, then again. The dry, brittle board shattered and he yanked the door open to find a young, dark-haired woman with two black eyes staring out at him, her hands duct taped behind her back.

  “Jesus! Come on.”

  “That’s not my name. It’s Phoebe.” She turned. “Cut this!”

  Responding to her curt order, Perry Hale snatched the razor-sharp MK-3 Navy knife from the sheath strapped onto his pack and sliced her bonds like butter. She was out in a flash, ducking between Perry Hale and Yolanda and heading for the open ground to the south at a dead run. The distinctive crack of breaking wood caught his attention and the entire roof of the bar collapsed from front to back, disappearing behind the cinder-block walls. Stunned, he missed Phoebe’s escape.

  “Hey!” Yolanda shouted. “Where you going?”

  Phoebe threw the answer over her shoulder, black hair flying. “Away from here!”

  Another flash of movement from the back of the bar caught Perry Hale’s attention. A wooden door slammed open a moment before the last of the roof disappeared, and a man popped outside with a pistol in his hand. Perry Hale almost shot him, but having both eyes open saved Sonny Hawke’s life.

  Despite the situation, Perry Hale laughed. “Sonny!”

  Yolanda’s voice was full of wonder. “No way.”

  Chapter 83

  The last thing I expected to hear when I got outside was Perry Hale’s voice. He was beside a poor excuse for a sun-bleached shed twenty yards away. I caught a glimpse of Phoebe hauling ass toward the wide-open country behind it, and Yolanda on one knee, firing one short burst after the other at what looked like half the Mexican army maneuvering along the shallow drop-off beside the dirt road. Beyond that was the Rio Grande sixty yards north of a cluster of dying buildings and the La Carmen Bridge.

  Socks aren’t made for running across the desert, but the wet ground felt good under my feet as I sprinted toward my friends. Okay, the way I felt and the shape I was in didn’t lend itself to a real sprint, more a walking-dead-zombie stagger/shuffle, but I had bullets nipping at my heels, and that overcame everything for the moment.

  Perry Hale squeezed off three shots that cracked past going the other direction, only feet away. The muzzle blast was a physical presence, but I didn’t care. His return fire slowed them down some and probably made more than a few guys dodge back out of the way.

  He shook his head in disgust. “If you’d listened to me at the house on the other side of the river we wouldn’t be in this mess now!”

  “That was you?”

  “Yeah, and you almost shot me.” The shooting fell off as the three of us ducked around behind the scant protection of the shed.

  I leaned back against the wall to blow for a minute and realized it was Perry Hale with the rifle, shooting the bad guys off me in the house. “Y’all are a sight for sore eyes. What took you so long?”

  “Like I told you, I’ve already tried once to get you out of this.” Perry Hale gave me a squint. “By the way, you look like hell.” I got that head-to-toe look, and figured all the mud, blood, swelling, and grime really was a sight. “You gonna live long enough to get across the river?”

  “Screw you. I’ve been under a lot of pressure.”

  We were in a lull, and they chuckled. Yolanda reached out a hand and barely touched my shoulder with manicured fingernails. I looked down at the red polish and choked down a sob that rose quick as a geyser. I had to blink my eyes clear. “What’s the plan?”

  Yolanda turned her back to me and scanned the scrub-covered landscape. “There isn’t one.”

  “Y’all had to have something in mind.”

  “To get the hell out of here is the first thing I can think of. Reloading.” Perry Hale slapped in a fresh magazine.

  A female voice floated from where Phoebe’d disappeared. We couldn’t find her at first, but then I saw only her head and waving arm. “Is she standing in a hole?”

  “Arroyo, I’ll bet.” Perry Hale grinned. “That’s a better idea than I had.”

  No one was shooting at us when we pushed away from the shed. Perry Hale grabbed my good right arm to give me something to lean on and we lurched toward Phoebe’s hidey-hole.

  Chapter 84

  Kelly Hawke sat on the bed with Mary in their Hotel Posada room, listening to sirens converge on the area. Herman was in the room’s only chair watching the door. The pump 870 shotgun rested across his knees. Gabe stood against the wall, peeking down at the patio through curtains barely cracked enough to let in the dim light of a cloudy sunrise.

  There had been gunfire downstairs, but now everything was quiet. So quiet they could hear phones and soft voices through the walls as the hotel’s terrified guests spoke to the outside world.

  A soft knock at the door was an electric jolt to the Hawkes. Gabe barely moved.

  Kelly gasped and was angry at herself for such a reaction. She picked up the little .38 from the bed beside her leg and waited.

  Herman leveled the shotgun with his good arm. “Who is it?”

  “Deputy Frank Malone, Herman.”

  “All right. Frank, you stay out there. You alone?”

  “Sure am. Y’all all right?”

  “We’re good.”

  “Nobody hurt? I hear there was a lot of shooting up here, and if I’m right, it was y’all who left a few of these bodies out here. It’s over now.”

  “Fine.”

  There was a pause. Kelly raised an eyebrow in question. Herman shook his head and mouthed “Wait.”

  Malone tapped the door again. “Y’all can come out now. There’s deputies downstairs.”

  “Frank, I know you and you know me. We’re gonna stay right here until I see more badges down there in the patio.”

  “Herman, how do I know y’all ain’t in there at gunpoint? Let me in to check on you, and then I’ll leave and you can stay right there until we get things tidied up out here.”

  “How do I know the same ain’t going on out there and somebody’s got a gun on you? Me and Gabe are going to stay right here for a little bit longer.”

  “Are Kelly and Mary all right?”

  Kelly licked her wet lips. “We’re fine, Frank. We tried to come out a little while ago and ran into those guys.”

  “I can see that.” The floor creaked as the deputy shifted his weight. Another siren approached. “I’ll get some men down in the patio for you.”

  Herman nodded, as if Deputy Malone could see him. “A’ite. But wait until it’s full light.”

  “That’s overkill, ain’t it?”

  “Damned sure is.”

  “Fine then. I’m gonna post some men at either end of this hall, and Herman, there are people in these other rooms. We’re gonna get them out of here, so y’all’ll be the only ones on this floor.”

  “Good. We’ll come out at full light.”

  “Mary, I need to hear both you and Gabe right fast here.”

  “We’re fine.” Mary spoke first.

  “Me, too.” Gabe’s voice was steady. “We shot the damn hell out of those guys.”

  Kelly saw the crow’s-feet appear in the corner of Herman’s eyes. “Shot the hell out of them, Gabe.”

  Malone chuckled outside the door. “Now I know y’all are all right. Holler when you’re ready.”

  Footsteps walked away and Kelly listened to make sure it was only one person. “Herman, let’s leave when they get the othe
r guests.”

  “Nope. I have complete control in here. I want an army of men in this hotel before I even think of taking y’all somewheres else. Gabe, what do you see down there?”

  He parted the material with one finger and peered past the narrow balcony and into the patio below. “Not much yet. The body is still on the chair in the corner. Lots of blue lights flashing. A highway patrol car down on the street and fire truck farther down.”

  “See much of the patio?”

  “Some.” Gabe pulled the curtain back even farther and adjusted his position to look past the balcony rail just outside the French doors.

  Mary’d had enough. She pushed herself off the bed. “Guys, this is too much. Mister Frank’s outside. It’s over. I’ll show you.” She stalked across the room and yanked one side of the curtains open. The sheer behind it fluttered and she snapped the thumb lock open on the wooden doors to prove all was well.

  The glass doors exploded inward as two men with gleaming blades charged inside.

  Chapter 85

  Javier and Pepito found themselves all alone behind a Humvee as the soldiers pressed forward toward the two armed Americans. All four doors were open, and the interior was a gangster’s dream of firearms and explosives.

  Javier crawled half-inside and emerged with a pair of H&K rifles. He handed one to Pepito, then collected a handful of loaded magazines for each of them. Pepito grinned. “I feel better now.”

  “Me, too. Let’s go.”

  “Where?”

  “Home.” Javier waved to the southwest. “We’re going home.”

  * * *

  The gunfire ended for the moment and Chatto rose from behind the Grinder’s shot-up Suburban. “Are they dead, Captain?”

  Shaken, Captain Perez surveyed the bodies lying in front of the American Vista Bar and several others in the street. He snorted. “My men, your men, or those norteamericanos?”

  Chatto’s face reddened and it made him furious to feel that way in front of an inferior. “The Americans.”

  Perez shouted the question and his second in command, Lieutenant Oscar Hernandez joined them. “They disappeared into that arroyo. I have men following.”

  “Call them back.”

  “Sir?”

  “They’re coming around. They can’t afford to stay on this side of the river and the water is so high they will need the bridge to cross.”

  Hernandez relayed his orders as Captain Perez turned to Chatto. “Most of these bodies are your men.”

  Chatto shrugged at the carnage. Only a handful of his men had survived. “They know what can happen. Alvar, where is El Molinillo?”

  The dazed gangster who had miraculously gotten by unscathed gestured toward the building and for the first time Chatto realized what had happened to the bar. “He’s in there, dead.” Alvar pointed at the collapsed building.

  The gang leader’s face reddened. “Americanos. I’m going to hang their bodies from that bridge.”

  * * *

  Jerry and Arturo watched Perry Hale and Yolanda emerge from the empty building and force some of the soldiers to drop their weapons.

  Arturo relaxed. “I think we’re good.”

  The boys jolted when gunfire erupted across the river. More weapons joined in, and the volume swelled.

  “Dayum!” Jerry breathed.

  Less than two hundred yards separated the boys’ car across the river from the abandoned buildings. Their young eyes made out their friends in the gray light of dawn.

  “Vato, do you think we should back up?”

  Jerry glanced down at the steering wheel, as if debating whether or not to put the Bronco into reverse. “They won’t shoot at us across the river. That’s illegal.”

  Arturo snorted. “That won’t stop them.” He paused when a man in a blue shirt popped up behind the Suburban and sprinted toward the river. There was only one person who ran like that, with his head ducked impossibly low and his forearms tight against the side of his chest. It was his step-dad, Santiago Estrada. “That pendejo!”

  “What? Who?”

  “That guy over there in the blue shirt, who’s running like a rabbit. That’s my step-dad.”

  “What’s he doing with those guys?”

  “How should I know. He was deported a few months ago.”

  “Where’s he going?”

  Arturo flashed Jerry a disgusted look. “Dude, I don’t have any idea.”

  Estrada reached the raging Rio Grande and leaped over the edge onto a thin strip of muddy riverbed. Losing his balance, he windmilled his arms for a moment before regaining his feet.

  He ducked below the bank and made his treacherous way upriver.

  Chapter 86

  Phoebe’s arroyo was wide and chest deep on the 5′2″ girl. A stream of water cut through the middle, but there was enough space on either side for us to run in a crouch.

  That’s what we did.

  Yolanda led the way and set a hard pace that I could barely manage. I was sucking air and wanted to tell her to slow down, but we needed to make hay while we could. Phoebe was hot on her heels. Perry Hale was last, twisting this way and that to make sure nobody popped up behind us.

  My socks were soaked, and I came down on something that cut my foot. I hissed, wanting to sit down and cry like a baby, but there was no way I’d do that in front of those three.

  Yolanda stopped. “There’s a low-water crossing here. Perry, this must be the road going south.”

  He moved up past me, then turned to face back where we came. “We’ve come around behind them.” He pointed to the right. “The bridge is that way. Let’s get over there before they realize what happened.”

  I’d seen that bridge before and there was more wire on that thing than the impound lot. “How are we going to get over?”

  “We’ve cut a hole in the wire.”

  “The wire above the steel panel and bars? That’s twenty feet in the air.”

  “More like twenty-five.”

  I looked down at my bloody socks. My blisters woke up when I started thinking about them. “I don’t think I can climb a chain-link fence in these.”

  Perry saw my feet for the first time. Half a beat later, he knelt and unlaced his boots. “Wear these.”

  “I can’t . . .”

  “You can. I’m fresh. Besides, by the time it’s my turn to go through the wire there’ll be so much adrenaline pumping I’ll probably fly over the top.” He dug in his pack and pulled out a second set of thick socks that he pulled on over those he already wore.

  The combat boots were a size too large, but I didn’t argue. They felt like a feather bed on my feet and I rallied. “Phoebe, hope you’re good at climbing.”

  A tiny smile was her only response.

  “We gotta go.” Yolanda started forward. “I don’t hear a thing, and that worries me.”

  Perry Hale pushed past her. “I lead this time. Sonny, you and Phoebe listen to us and do exactly what we say.”

  “Got it.” I was in way over my head. “Let’s go.”

  We’d been crouched in an area protected from the ghost town by the head-high bank of the arroyo. The road crossed on a plank bridge fifty yards ahead and continued north to the river. The recent floods had cut a deeper channel in the middle of our arroyo, and the water gurgled, splashing around a small dam of debris.

  Perry Hale led us to the steep cut in the wet, muddy bank at the same time two armed men suddenly slid to the bottom, heading west and away from us. We would have let them go, but one checked over his shoulder and saw us. He whirled.

  Perry Hale barked a soft order. “Drop them!”

  I stopped in shock when I saw it was Javier and Pepito standing there in the open, bigger’n Dallas. They registered Perry Hale and Yolanda in their tactical gear first, then Phoebe. I stepped out from behind Perry Hale and Pepito noticed me.

  Javier was a beat behind. Their mouths popped open in recognition and their weapons came up at the same time I raised the big Colt and sho
t Javier in the chest. The bullet snapped past Perry Hale and he flinched, then pulled the trigger on his shouldered rifle. Pepito soaked up half a dozen rounds before he dropped beside Javier’s body.

  Though I had enough gun in my hand, I anchored Javier with a second shot. Yolanda raised an eyebrow, then checked behind us. Those shots had obviously been heard by the others and they’d be coming along pretty soon.

  Perry Hale raised his cheek from the rifle’s stock just long enough to comment. “Did you owe them money?”

  “Those are the two that started all this.”

  “Good deal.”

  “Hang on.” I limped over to the bodies, confident the others would keep an eye out.

  Yolanda’s voice rose and the fear and frustration she carried came out clear as a bell. “Sonny, we need to move.”

  “I know it. But this guy has something of mine.” I knelt beside Javier’s cooling body. I slapped his right pants pocket and pulled out two full magazines for the machine gun lying beside his hand. I tucked them into my back pockets. It was his shirt I was most interested in. My badge wasn’t there, but a slight bulge in the snap pocket showed me what I was looking for. I unsnapped the flap and fished out my Ranger badge.

  I held it up for them to see. “I told this sonofabitch I was gonna get this back.” I pinned it to my shirt and the familiar weight made me feel a little taller.

  “You’ve never said nothin’ you didn’t follow up on. Let’s go.” Perry Hale led us up the road at a run. I picked up one of the gangster’s weapons and followed as best I could.

  Chapter 87

  A line of official vehicles rolled down FM 2627, the two-lane farm road running from the bridge to civilization. Jerry saw them in his rearview mirror.

  “Uh oh. Cavalry’s here.”

  Arturo looked over his shoulder through the Bronco’s back glass. “They’re gonna be mad.”

  “I don’t care. This is a free country. We can go anywhere we want and don’t have to ask. Besides, my dad’s supposed to be over there.”

  Had the ground been dry, the air would have been full of dust when the tires squalled off the pavement and slid to a stop on all sides of the kids’ car. The sound of gunfire from across the river met Sheriff Ethan Armstrong when he popped out from behind the wheel of his Dodge Durango and dropped down behind the open door.